B-Tech AV Mounts are proud to have supplied a key component for the world’s largest Remote Towers Centre project, in Bodø, Norway. This exciting project, executed by global technology leader Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace for Norway’s national navigation service provider Avinor, is at the forefront of air navigation development. Fifteen modules, each complete with a 360° “out-of-the-window” display, allow the remote management of airport traffic from multiple airports from a single, remote location. This high-tech environment naturally demands the most reliable AV hardware and so B-Tech’s System X videowall stands were selected for the project and supplied to project manager and integrator Kongsberg, by Norwegian distributor Solvo-Tech AS.
THE CHALLENGE
Aviation is vital in a country like Norway, where distances are large, tourism is growing, and businesses are internationally focused. As many of Norway’s control towers were due for refurbishment or total replacement, replacing physical towers with a remotely controlled system provided a tremendous opportunity to increase efficiency, reduce costs and train new personnel quicker. At the same time, accuracy and safety always remain the top priority. Therefore, the solution must provide the same or better performance than a traditional physical tower service located at each airport.
To emulate the same “out of the window” view from the towers to the digital screens, the right mounting solution had to be selected. As Jens Petter Duestad, Head of Operations of Remote Tower Centre Bodø, stated, “It is of great importance that the AV mounting solution provides consistent curvature and seamless transition between each and every screen. It must be robust and steady enough to endure cleaning and enable replacement of individual screens swiftly”. On top of that, he emphasized the importance of a future-oriented solution, “We also demand the AV mounting system to be flexible in screen height and curvature since we are still in an experimental phase. Larger and more complex airports, implemented later in the Remote Tower Programme, might make other demands”.
THE SOLUTION
Two centuries of innovation, transformation, and delivering results have made Kongsberg a recognised global technology leader and a leading supplier in defence, surveillance, space, aerostructures and MRO. Their experience in complex missions and their highly skilled team made them the perfect fit for the challenge in this project. They developed an advanced solution with extreme high-resolution camera sensors, capable of capturing details at the accuracy of the human eye and sometimes even better using advanced features such as infrared cameras. To provide the operator with a realistic viewpoint of the airport tower they are controlling, each module would be installed with a 10-screen curved videowall. Ole Preben Tenold, Service Manager for Aviation and Security at Kongsberg, recognised early on the
THE RESULT
Since the opening of The Remote Towers Centre in October 2020, four remote towers have begun operating successfully, with eleven more to be rolled out by the end of 2022.
The technological innovation power of Kongsberg made this project a success, providing improved safety and performance while at the same time offering unique flexibility through scalability.
“Being able to quickly specify and supply mounting systems that met the project’s high demands for flexibility and reliability, was precisely what our System X Range was designed to do, so it is fantastic to see it being utilised so successfully in this prestigious project” -Nick Spencer, Director of Marketing and Communications for B-Tech AV Mounts.
The project was nominated as a finalist for an InAVation Award in the “Best Control Room” project category at the 2021 awards.
